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Description

The Officio Assassinorum is a secretive branch of the Imperiums government that recruits, trains, and deploys elite assassins. Assassins are used to eliminate high-priority targets, such as enemy commanders. They also dispatch political dissidents like planetary governors who wish to secede from the Imperium. The agents of the Assassinorum can accomplish such missions in various ways, depending on their training; these methods may range from long-range sniper fire to infiltration, poisoning, or psychotic acts of mass slaughter.

For the Assassinorum to deploy an assassin, a two-thirds majority must be obtained from the High Lords to approve their use, with the Grand Master of Assassins serving as one of them. Under Imperial and Mechanicum law, the improper activation of the Officio Assassinorum is high treason.

Origins

Imperial Assassins are an ancient order dating back to the Unification Wars. During their early days, they answered to the Ephoroi of the Legio Custodes.

By the time of the Great Crusade, these various assassin orders would coalesce into the Officio Assassinorum. Eight individuals representing these orders swore an oath on the summit of Mount Vengeance. This oath reaffirmed the Emperor’s decree of having no world beyond His rule nor an enemy beyond His wrath. Seven of these individuals would go on to found the assassin clades, each becoming the Director Primus of each assassin clade. The eighth member of this conclave was Malcador the Sigillite, the Regent of Terra, who became the first Grand Master.

Once established, the leaders of the Assassinorum would conduct their meetings in a secret chamber deep within the Imperial Palace on Terra. This chamber was known as the Shroud, and its location was unknown to all, save for a select few.

After the Great Crusade, the Emperor decreed that the Officio Assassinorum would be brought into the light. As a result, the Officio Assassinorum would no longer operate independently and would be subject to proper governance.

Training and Recruitment

Recruits for the numerous assassin temples come from two sources. Children raised in the Imperiums Schola Progenium, a mix of school and orphanage, are the first of these. The second source is children drawn from feral worlds. These worlds are primitive and dangerous, yet they produce resilient and adaptable people.

Recruits are shipped to Terra for years of intensive training. Despite this, their trials began en route to the Throneworld. These trials are merciless, putting recruits through hazardous environments and even forcing them to fight one another to death. These trials are designed to weed out the weakest among them. Over 90% of these would-be assassins will perish before they ever reach Terra.

Once they reach Terra, the surviving recruits will train for several more years under the watchful eye of the Grand Master of Assassins. After that, they are assigned to one of the assassin clades.

After joining a clade, assassins are taught the skills and methods of assassination unique to that temple. In addition, they will augment each Assassin with multiple implants to heighten their senses, strength, endurance, and reflexes. These implants transform these already deadly killers into an almost unstoppable force. Assassins run faster than the fastest athlete. They can jump gaping chasms and place their hands in boiling water or fire without flinching. An Imperial assassin will not stop until either they or their target have been killed.

The Assassins Clades

There are four main clades of the Officio Assassinorum, each specializing in a distinct form or method of assassination.

A Director Primus leads each clade, while the Grand Master of Assassins leads the Officio Assassinorum.

Clade Vindicare

Assassins of Clade Vindicare are trained as snipers. They also display remarkable patience, setting up their snipers' nest weeks or even months in advance to get the perfect vantage point for their target. Vindicare assassins have a synskin stealth suit that helps them blend into their environment. The Vindicare has a spy mask that allows them to locate heat and energy sources over a long distance. It also allows them to monitor enemy communications. Vindicare assassins use the Exitus rifle and pistol for long and close-range combat. These master-crafted weapons are equipped with several ammunition types for maximum adaptability.

Clade Callidus

Clade Callidus specializes in the subtle art of face dancing and infiltration. Callidus assassins rely on the specialized drug known as Polymorphine, which grants the Assassin the ability to shape-shift. This shape-shifting ability allows the Assassin to take on the appearance of any humanoid, regardless of gender. Using this technique, the Callidus Assassin can get close to enemy commanders or powerful warlords, influencing their strategy and killing them when the opportunity arises. The properties of Polymorphine are easier to use and manipulate if the user is female. Thus, most Callidus Assassins are female. In combat, the Callidus Assassins use the Neural Shredder, a short-range pistol that destroys the brain and nervous system. Callidus Assassins also wield poison blades and even phase swords which can bypass flesh, bone, and armor as if they were air.

Clade Culexus

The Clade Culexus specializes in hunting down psykers. It is one of the most sinister and feared orders of the Officio Assassinorum. Recruits for the Culexus Temple are drawn only from psychic Blanks, beings born without souls that project a negative Warp presence. This aura that they emit renders them immune to almost any kind of psychic attack. Their presence alone causes severe pain for those who are psychically gifted. Culexus Assassins use a unique headgear known as the Animus Speculum, which can channel the Assassin’s null field into a deadly blast of negative psychic energy. While these blasts can harm almost anyone, they are especially fatal to psykers.

Clade Eversor

The Clade Eversor is the most gruesome weapon of the Officio Assassinorum. The Eversor do not use stealth or subtlety like the other assassin Clades. Instead, Eversor assassins are little more than violent berserkers pumped with a cocktail of combat drugs. These drugs grant Eversor enhanced speed, aggression, and endurance. Only the most heinous of wounds can kill an Eversor. To compensate for the strain these drugs put on their bodies, they implanted Eversor assassins with a secondary heart. This also acts as a failsafe should the primary heart is damaged. If an Eversor assassin should fall in battle, their immune system will regulate the drugs in the Assassin’s system, and the Eversor will violently explode.

Eversor assassins are so dangerous that they are kept in cryogenic hibernation between assignments. Assassins are transferred from their cryogenic crypts into Drop Pods and fired toward the target planet once the mission has been assigned. The Assassin remains in stasis as direct neurolinks within the pod feed all the relevant mission details directly into his neural cortex.

In combat, the Eversor is equipped with an Executioner pistol, a combination of bolt and needle pistols. It also has a Neuro Gauntlet, a bladed glove capable of injecting toxins into a target. Eversor Assassins are also equipped with a power sword and Melta bombs for clearing obstacles.

Eversor Assassins are primarily used against rebels who have plans to move against the Imperium with an armed force. When a war of attrition is ruled out — perhaps because it is likely to leave a valuable planet ravaged — the High Lords will sometimes sanction the use of an Eversor Assassin.

Eversors are also used by the Silver Order of the Orders Metallic when the indelible taint of Chaos is believed to have spread throughout the ruling elite of an entire Imperial Adepta or planetary government.

While Silver Order forces like the Silver Knights Space Marines may face Chaos Cult minions on the battlefield, the Eversor will operate behind enemy lines to eradicate the infection.

An Eversor Assassin rarely has just a single target. His mission will be to rip the heart out of the Chaos insurgency, wreaking havoc and destruction. Such brutality ensures that the Heretics are cleansed, and no would-be successors may take over. The sheer terror left behind in the wake of an Eversor Assassin’s onslaught ensures that none will dare to oppose the will of the Imperium again.

In addition to the four main Clades, there are three less well-known Clades, Venenum, Adamus, and Vanus.

Clade Adamus

Clade Adamus Assassins are master swordsmen and melee specialists, drawing on some of the oldest blade-master traditions on Old Earth. Adamus Assassins are dedicated to decapitation strikes to eliminate an enemy military force’s command and control.

In battle, they wield the feared Nemesii Blade and a Combi-Weapon.

Clade Venenum

The Clade Venenum trains only in exotic poisons to carry out their mission requirements. Clade Venenum’s stock-in-trade is using operatives who are the galaxy’s finest poison masters. Their mastery of poisons is unparalleled outside the Dark City of Commorragh, and the Clade’s operatives sow within their targets time-delayed toxins that afford them ample time to escape suspicion. Through their Clade’s apprenticeship, they manufacture killing philters from the most base of components, which allow them to kill their targets and leave no metabolic trace of the toxin.

Venenum Assassins wield Toxin Injectors and poisoned Hookfang blades.

Clade Vanus

The Vanus Assassins are primarily used as intelligence gatherers. In matters of grand strategy, they are without peer, their political insight unparalleled by the savants of the Imperium. Clade Vanus works to engineer their mark’s doom via their consummate command of information. Clade Vanus waged a far more complex war, taking the art of stealth killing to the next level. Their method is to learn everything possible about not only their target but also those closest to them and then to manipulate circumstances, so their target's own folly brings their mark’s death about or preferably by the hand of a once-trusted friend or comrade. It is Clade Vanus that the Imperium employs when the revelation of a prominent figure’s heresy would cause more damage than the knowledge of the resultant retribution.

In terms of equipment, Clade Vanus possesses cogitator gauntlets that projected hololithic panes that floated in the air for them to access data. They could also send small swarms of organic-metal netfly automata that can tap into optic cables and parse through the data that are fed back to the operative. Each of these netflies was by itself a relatively unsophisticated piece of technology. However, en masse, their networking skills allowed the information they transferred to be condensed into a coherent picture of what occurred in the immediate surroundings of the Vanus Assassin. This allowed them to generate maps of nearby structures and traffic and place monitoring beads throughout any zone. The netflies accomplished their task by drilling into the deep sub-web of imaging coils. When entering an information system, Clade Vanus assassins can unleash data phages and blackouts designed to subvert the enemy.

Operatives of the Clade do not have apparent weapons and are armed with devices such as an electro-pulse projector built into their cogitator gauntlet. They also use automata like psyber eagles, eyerats, and netfly swarms. They also use Imperial bionics like mechadendrites that served as potent interface tools with other pieces of technology.

Description

The Officio Assassinorum is a secretive branch of the Imperiums government that recruits, trains, and deploys elite assassins. Assassins are used to eliminate high-priority targets, such as enemy commanders. They also dispatch political dissidents like planetary governors who wish to secede from the Imperium. The agents of the Assassinorum can accomplish such missions in various ways, depending on their training; these methods may range from long-range sniper fire to infiltration, poisoning, or psychotic acts of mass slaughter.

For the Assassinorum to deploy an assassin, a two-thirds majority must be obtained from the High Lords to approve their use, with the Grand Master of Assassins serving as one of them. Under Imperial and Mechanicum law, the improper activation of the Officio Assassinorum is high treason.

Origins

Imperial Assassins are an ancient order dating back to the Unification Wars. During their early days, they answered to the Ephoroi of the Legio Custodes.

By the time of the Great Crusade, these various assassin orders would coalesce into the Officio Assassinorum. Eight individuals representing these orders swore an oath on the summit of Mount Vengeance. This oath reaffirmed the Emperor’s decree of having no world beyond His rule nor an enemy beyond His wrath. Seven of these individuals would go on to found the assassin clades, each becoming the Director Primus of each assassin clade. The eighth member of this conclave was Malcador the Sigillite, the Regent of Terra, who became the first Grand Master.

Once established, the leaders of the Assassinorum would conduct their meetings in a secret chamber deep within the Imperial Palace on Terra. This chamber was known as the Shroud, and its location was unknown to all, save for a select few.

After the Great Crusade, the Emperor decreed that the Officio Assassinorum would be brought into the light. As a result, the Officio Assassinorum would no longer operate independently and would be subject to proper governance.

Training and Recruitment

Recruits for the numerous assassin temples come from two sources. Children raised in the Imperiums Schola Progenium, a mix of school and orphanage, are the first of these. The second source is children drawn from feral worlds. These worlds are primitive and dangerous, yet they produce resilient and adaptable people.

Recruits are shipped to Terra for years of intensive training. Despite this, their trials began en route to the Throneworld. These trials are merciless, putting recruits through hazardous environments and even forcing them to fight one another to death. These trials are designed to weed out the weakest among them. Over 90% of these would-be assassins will perish before they ever reach Terra.

Once they reach Terra, the surviving recruits will train for several more years under the watchful eye of the Grand Master of Assassins. After that, they are assigned to one of the assassin clades.

After joining a clade, assassins are taught the skills and methods of assassination unique to that temple. In addition, they will augment each Assassin with multiple implants to heighten their senses, strength, endurance, and reflexes. These implants transform these already deadly killers into an almost unstoppable force. Assassins run faster than the fastest athlete. They can jump gaping chasms and place their hands in boiling water or fire without flinching. An Imperial assassin will not stop until either they or their target have been killed.

The Assassins Clades

There are four main clades of the Officio Assassinorum, each specializing in a distinct form or method of assassination.

A Director Primus leads each clade, while the Grand Master of Assassins leads the Officio Assassinorum.

Clade Vindicare

Assassins of Clade Vindicare are trained as snipers. They also display remarkable patience, setting up their snipers' nest weeks or even months in advance to get the perfect vantage point for their target. Vindicare assassins have a synskin stealth suit that helps them blend into their environment. The Vindicare has a spy mask that allows them to locate heat and energy sources over a long distance. It also allows them to monitor enemy communications. Vindicare assassins use the Exitus rifle and pistol for long and close-range combat. These master-crafted weapons are equipped with several ammunition types for maximum adaptability.

Clade Callidus

Clade Callidus specializes in the subtle art of face dancing and infiltration. Callidus assassins rely on the specialized drug known as Polymorphine, which grants the Assassin the ability to shape-shift. This shape-shifting ability allows the Assassin to take on the appearance of any humanoid, regardless of gender. Using this technique, the Callidus Assassin can get close to enemy commanders or powerful warlords, influencing their strategy and killing them when the opportunity arises. The properties of Polymorphine are easier to use and manipulate if the user is female. Thus, most Callidus Assassins are female. In combat, the Callidus Assassins use the Neural Shredder, a short-range pistol that destroys the brain and nervous system. Callidus Assassins also wield poison blades and even phase swords which can bypass flesh, bone, and armor as if they were air.

Clade Culexus

The Clade Culexus specializes in hunting down psykers. It is one of the most sinister and feared orders of the Officio Assassinorum. Recruits for the Culexus Temple are drawn only from psychic Blanks, beings born without souls that project a negative Warp presence. This aura that they emit renders them immune to almost any kind of psychic attack. Their presence alone causes severe pain for those who are psychically gifted. Culexus Assassins use a unique headgear known as the Animus Speculum, which can channel the Assassin’s null field into a deadly blast of negative psychic energy. While these blasts can harm almost anyone, they are especially fatal to psykers.

Clade Eversor

The Clade Eversor is the most gruesome weapon of the Officio Assassinorum. The Eversor do not use stealth or subtlety like the other assassin Clades. Instead, Eversor assassins are little more than violent berserkers pumped with a cocktail of combat drugs. These drugs grant Eversor enhanced speed, aggression, and endurance. Only the most heinous of wounds can kill an Eversor. To compensate for the strain these drugs put on their bodies, they implanted Eversor assassins with a secondary heart. This also acts as a failsafe should the primary heart is damaged. If an Eversor assassin should fall in battle, their immune system will regulate the drugs in the Assassin’s system, and the Eversor will violently explode.

Eversor assassins are so dangerous that they are kept in cryogenic hibernation between assignments. Assassins are transferred from their cryogenic crypts into Drop Pods and fired toward the target planet once the mission has been assigned. The Assassin remains in stasis as direct neurolinks within the pod feed all the relevant mission details directly into his neural cortex.

In combat, the Eversor is equipped with an Executioner pistol, a combination of bolt and needle pistols. It also has a Neuro Gauntlet, a bladed glove capable of injecting toxins into a target. Eversor Assassins are also equipped with a power sword and Melta bombs for clearing obstacles.

Eversor Assassins are primarily used against rebels who have plans to move against the Imperium with an armed force. When a war of attrition is ruled out — perhaps because it is likely to leave a valuable planet ravaged — the High Lords will sometimes sanction the use of an Eversor Assassin.

Eversors are also used by the Silver Order of the Orders Metallic when the indelible taint of Chaos is believed to have spread throughout the ruling elite of an entire Imperial Adepta or planetary government.

While Silver Order forces like the Silver Knights Space Marines may face Chaos Cult minions on the battlefield, the Eversor will operate behind enemy lines to eradicate the infection.

An Eversor Assassin rarely has just a single target. His mission will be to rip the heart out of the Chaos insurgency, wreaking havoc and destruction. Such brutality ensures that the Heretics are cleansed, and no would-be successors may take over. The sheer terror left behind in the wake of an Eversor Assassin’s onslaught ensures that none will dare to oppose the will of the Imperium again.

In addition to the four main Clades, there are three less well-known Clades, Venenum, Adamus, and Vanus.

Clade Adamus

Clade Adamus Assassins are master swordsmen and melee specialists, drawing on some of the oldest blade-master traditions on Old Earth. Adamus Assassins are dedicated to decapitation strikes to eliminate an enemy military force’s command and control.

In battle, they wield the feared Nemesii Blade and a Combi-Weapon.

Clade Venenum

The Clade Venenum trains only in exotic poisons to carry out their mission requirements. Clade Venenum’s stock-in-trade is using operatives who are the galaxy’s finest poison masters. Their mastery of poisons is unparalleled outside the Dark City of Commorragh, and the Clade’s operatives sow within their targets time-delayed toxins that afford them ample time to escape suspicion. Through their Clade’s apprenticeship, they manufacture killing philters from the most base of components, which allow them to kill their targets and leave no metabolic trace of the toxin.

Venenum Assassins wield Toxin Injectors and poisoned Hookfang blades.

Clade Vanus

The Vanus Assassins are primarily used as intelligence gatherers. In matters of grand strategy, they are without peer, their political insight unparalleled by the savants of the Imperium. Clade Vanus works to engineer their mark’s doom via their consummate command of information. Clade Vanus waged a far more complex war, taking the art of stealth killing to the next level. Their method is to learn everything possible about not only their target but also those closest to them and then to manipulate circumstances, so their target's own folly brings their mark’s death about or preferably by the hand of a once-trusted friend or comrade. It is Clade Vanus that the Imperium employs when the revelation of a prominent figure’s heresy would cause more damage than the knowledge of the resultant retribution.

In terms of equipment, Clade Vanus possesses cogitator gauntlets that projected hololithic panes that floated in the air for them to access data. They could also send small swarms of organic-metal netfly automata that can tap into optic cables and parse through the data that are fed back to the operative. Each of these netflies was by itself a relatively unsophisticated piece of technology. However, en masse, their networking skills allowed the information they transferred to be condensed into a coherent picture of what occurred in the immediate surroundings of the Vanus Assassin. This allowed them to generate maps of nearby structures and traffic and place monitoring beads throughout any zone. The netflies accomplished their task by drilling into the deep sub-web of imaging coils. When entering an information system, Clade Vanus assassins can unleash data phages and blackouts designed to subvert the enemy.

Operatives of the Clade do not have apparent weapons and are armed with devices such as an electro-pulse projector built into their cogitator gauntlet. They also use automata like psyber eagles, eyerats, and netfly swarms. They also use Imperial bionics like mechadendrites that served as potent interface tools with other pieces of technology.